Soil Erosion

Climate change is expected to impact soils through changes in both soil erosion and rainfall erosivity. Change in erosion can have significant implications for natural assets, agricultural lands and water quality.

The Office of Environment and Heritage has used the projections from NARCliM to provide updated information on the projected impacts of climate change on soil erosion and rainfall erosivity in the near future (2030) and far future (2070).

Research results

Percent change in annual rainfall erosivity for near (left) and far (right) futures

NSW is projected to undergo an increase in erosion on both the near and far futures.

The areas most affected are those with already high erosion risk, namely the Great Dividing Range, Central Coast, North Coast and Hunter regions.

There are areas with significant projected erosion impacts e.g. the Hunter region will lose up to 195 tonnes of soil per hectare per year, highlighting the importance of groundcover maintenance and soil management in this region.

Download information

This document provides a summary of the climate change impacts on soil erosion and rainfall erosivity for NSW from the Soil Erosion Technical Report

What is soil erosion and rainfall erosivity?

Soil erosion is the actual loss of soil and can have significant impacts on the availability of nutrients and organic matter in soil.

Rainfall erosivity is a measure of the ability of rainfall to cause erosion and is largely a function of the amount of rainfall and the intensity of rainfall.

Do you want to see how climate change will affect your region?

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The Adapt NSW site now has an interactive map that allows you to see how climate change is projected to affect your region. You can look at the high resolution grid maps which display climate change at 10km scale or the regional maps which provide a summary for your region. Click through the variables and different time periods to see how the climate is projected to change for your region.

Are you looking for climate change data?

For the first time, the NSW and ACT Regional Climate Model (NARCLiM) allows you access to high resolution climate change data. This data is in a format that can be inputted directly into most biophysical models. You can choose the variable, time period and location of the data you want to download. The data portal provides instructions on how to download the data.

Do you want to learn more about climate change?

The About Climate Change tab provides a one stop shop for information on how and why our climate is changing. There is information to help understand the causes of climate change, climate change modelling, evidence of climate change today and how NSW is responding to the challenge.

Do you want to know how to adapt to climate change?

Climate change projections help us to understand how climate change is going to impact us. We then need to know how to adapt to those impacts. Adapting to climate change provides information on what adaptation is, sector specific issues and responses, and the process you can go through to understand and respond to the risks to and vulnerabilities of your services, assets and community from climate change.